Comparison Between Local Manufactured Panel Ridge and Conventional Disc Ridge Throughout Investigating Their Effects on Power-Use-Efficiency, Draft Force and Actual Field Productivity

Abstract

Field experiment was conducted to investigate the comparison between two types of ridge (panel and disc) using two spaces between the operational parts (90 and 110 cm) at two speeds (4 and 2.6 km/hr). First stage from this study was to identify the important dimensions to the local manufactured ridge (ridge panel) with selecting the appropriate material throughout series of material, mechanical and chemical analyses. Second stage was to evaluate the performance of this particular manufactured ridge by measuring the effects of this implement on draft force, slippage percentage and power-use-efficiency as well as field performance represented by field productivity, efficiency, and the size of the disturbed soil. Randomized Complete Block Design (split-split plot) was used in this experiment to find out the effects of the studied factors on the indications that mentioned above. The results have shown that the local manufactured panel ridge (LMPR) was significantly higher than the Conventional Disc Ridge (CDR) (P<0.05) in terms of power and performance efficiency. First speed (4 km/hr) was also significant by recording higher values for draft force, practical field productivity and the volume of disturbed soil compared with 2.6 km/hr. The wider distance between the operational parts (110 cm) was significantly higher in terms of practical field productivity and the volume of the disturbed soil compared with the smaller distance 90 cm (P<0.05), however, 90 cm recorded higher efficiency performance. The interaction between speed and the distance between the operational parts was also significant (P<0.05), where 2.6 km/hr with 110 cm recorded higher slippage percentage, and speed 4 km/hr resulted higher field productivity and disturbed soil when interacted with 110 cm distance. It is also found that all interactions between speeds, the types of ridge, the interactions between distance and the type of ridges were significantly effect on the power and performance indications. Where the local manufactured ridge at these speeds and distances was significantly better compared with the disc ridge through recording higher values for the power-use-efficiency (PUE), practical field productivity, performance-efficiency and the volume of the disturbed soil. The interaction between the three studied factors was also significant (P<0.05), where manufactured ridge recorded higher values compared with the disc ridge in terms of all investigated indications.